Personal Canon Thread

With Nova Prime coming out the idea of having a "Council of Primes" in my collection is tempting.

Optimus: Ok the Council of Primes is gathered. Reports?

Rodimus: *shows a video of his team and how they're all great friends ala Michael Scott going to corporate*

Optimus: Um... ok... Onyx?

Onyx: I'M NOT SHOCKWAVE!

Optimus: Of course you're not. Nova?

Nova: My machinations are beyond any of your puny minds. I waste time humouring you all with this farce *logs off*

Optimus: A pleasure as always Nova. Sentinel?

Sentinel: People say I have the best status updates. The very best. All the smartest people say so.

Optimus: Ok care to share?

Sentinel: SAD!

Optimus: Primus help me. Anyone else?

Onyx: YOU'RE ALL BITCHES!

Optimus: Leo. Anything?

Leo: *plays piano in kitty mode*

Seeing them side by side CW Rook and Legacy Strongarm are part of the same law enforcement unit.

When it comes to the NEST bots, Bumblebee, Ratchet and Bonecrusher, my head canon is in a slightly alternate timeline to AOE, NEST worked with KSI to build Transformers in secret, they've built four: Galvatron who is intended to destroy Optimus Prime in case he goes rogue, Bonecrusher whose head was kept in secret, Ratchet - Galvatron's first victim, and a clone of Bumblebee. Naturally Galvatron is Megatron reborn, Ratchet has a shell program to keep him subservient to Galvatron as does Bumblebee.
It also adds some drama, Galvatron reveals Megatron was going to surrender and rebuild Cybertron but Optimus explains he wasn't going to let him just walk away from what he's done to Cybertron and Earth, now Galvatron just wants to burn everything.

Glitch said:

Ratchet - Galvatron's first victim

Click to expand...

But Lockdown killed Ratchet.

WARNING: The following has been split across four lengthy posts.


So... Beast Wars season 1. We know it has the weakest sense of overarching narrative out of the show's three seasons. Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio have even admitted as much, saying that they were basically making it up on the fly as they went along. Consequently... I'm just gonna say it: I don't like the official episode order. I think there is a better way to arrange the episodes in order to create a better sense of chronology, continuity, and serialization (that is, inter-episode connectivity) for the season.

In the official order, we get things like "The Web" taking place a whole month after the two-part pilot. I'm sorry, but what?! An entire MONTH has gone by between the second and third episodes? What have they been doing during all that time? And "Chain of Command" sees the Maximals examine the Standing Stones for the first time, but it's Episode 5? Well over a month after the stones were first observed in Episode 2? What took them so long to finally go check them out? I thought these guys were scientific explorers! And then there's Megatron's comment about underestimating Rhinox at the beginning of "Dark Designs", as if it's the first time he's ever underestimated him. Yet, Rhinox got the drop on Megatron TWICE before in both "The Probe" and "Victory", sucker-punching Megatron right in the kisser in the former, and physically over-powering him in the latter. And then there's "Possession", the episode where Blackarachnia is first taught how to be truly cunning and self-servingly devious by Starscream... when she already was cunning and ambitious back in both parts of "The Trigger". And her depiction as such in that two-parter also felt unprecedented since, up until that point, she was only ever shown to be loyal to Megatron and never gave him any reason to suspect her of any treachery before then. Yet, he is suspicious of her and sends Scorponok to keep an eye on her.

These are just some of the many issues I take with the official order, and are why I've decided to come up with a new one.



First up is obviously "Beast Wars (Part 1)". It's the first episode, so I needn't explain this one. But things of note are the release of the stasis pods from the Axalon during the space battle, the first instance of Cheetor venturing out into trouble in disobedience of Optimus, and Rattrap objecting to one of Optimus's orders because of how he thinks Optimus is deliberately giving him a raw deal. Each of these points will come up again in later episodes.


Next up is, of course, "Beast Wars (Part 2)", the second half of the two-part pilot. Of note in this one is Dinobot switching sides to join Maximals, labeling him a traitor among the Predacons. Also, the Maximals take notice of the Standing Stones and even point out the peculiarity of it being an unnatural structure that was built neither by them nor the Predacons.


This is where things get interesting, because third is "Chain of Command". This episode sees the Maximals investigate the Standing Stones. After spotting it in Episode 2 and observing its curious existence, wouldn't it make the most sense for the Maximals to make it a priority to investigate this structure sooner than later? In the official order, they don't look into it until three whole episodes after they first spot it (and, as I said above, the first of those three episodes, "The Web", is set at least an entire month after the two-part pilot). These Maximals are an exploration team. It's their job to do this kind of work.

Plus, Megatron in this episode is still pretty sore about Dinobot switching sides, acting like his betrayal was still a very recent thing ("Ah, Dinobot. That Predacon chip still ticks inside your traitorous hide!", punctuating that last bit with hatred and disgust). And Rattrap whines again about one of Optimus's orders, complaining that he gets all the dirty jobs, just like he did in the first episode. And, when the alien probe first comes down, Megatron initially thinks it's a stasis pod. In the official order, this episode comes well after the initial release of the pods in the first episode, meaning the viewers could have easily forgotten about that plot point until "Fallen Comrades" brings it back properly. Here, we're just expected to remember and already know what stasis pods are. All this makes the episode feel sort of like an epilogue to the pilot when watched immediately after it.

But then, you might be wondering, why would Optimus make Rattrap the leader in this episode if all Rattrap ever did beforehand was whine, complain, and question Optimus's leadership in the previous two episodes? Simple. Optimus chose Rattrap in order to give him a taste of the level of responsibility that Optimus now has to bear as Maximal leader of the Beast Wars. And by the end, Rattrap does gain a better understanding of what Optimus has to put up with as leader, and shows him better respect as a result, completing the development of his character arc (in relation to Optimus) that was begun in the first episode.


Next comes "Equal Measures", keeping it in its place as the fourth episode. This is one of two other episodes besides the pilot in which Cheetor runs off into danger against Optimus's orders. But in this one, he is able use his wits to get himself out of trouble and save the day on his own. In the end, he is congratulated by his peers for a job well done, but also warned by Optimus to never pull another stunt like this again, or else Optimus will punish him severely. Cheetor jokingly brushes off this warning, having learned absolutely nothing from this experience. Also, this episode shows us our first glimpse at Terrorsaur's ambitious desire to overthrow Megatron and take over the Predacons. He tries to form an alliance with Dinobot that will allow them to take out both Optimus Primal and Megatron, but Dinobot fakes him out and cancels their deal.


Then comes "Power Surge" as the fifth episode. Originally, I wanted to put this episode later to come after "Double Jeopardy" because of how, when Terrorsaur announces his challenge for Predacon leadership, Megatron says "I thought you already learned your lesson about challenging me, Terrorsaur." Since "Double Jeopardy" is the only other episode in which Terrorsaur openly tries to overthrow Megatron to his face, I felt placing this one right after that one was the only way to make that line of Megatron's make sense. But, the more I thought about it, the more this episode just didn't feel right coming that late in the season. This episode simply feels like an early episode. Plus, Rattrap and Optimus's little adventure in this one feels like a good bonding experience that would foreshadow Optimus entrusting Rattrap with the top secret mission of infiltrating the Predacons' base solo in "Double Jeopardy", so this one had to come before that one. So, what, then, is Megatron referring to in this episode? Well, maybe he somehow found out about Terrorsaur's attempted alliance with Dinobot in "Equal Measures" and took that as a challenge to his authority, so this ep would then come right after that one.

Episode six would then be "The Web". Strap yourselves in because I've got a lot to say about this one.

This is the other episode where Cheetor gets into trouble after breaking Optimus's orders. But this time, he gets into bigger trouble and has to be rescued. Twice, even. The first time, Optimus makes good on his word and punishes Cheetor severely, giving more weight to the threat he gave to Cheetor back in "Equal Measures" by having this one come after that one. Plus, when Cheetor has to be rescued the second time, by Rattrap, he goes through a much more traumatic experience and seems to really learn his lesson this time. When Rattrap helps Cheetor and Optimus reconcile, Cheetor promises that he'll be a team player from now on. And for the rest of the season after these first six episodes, he is.

In the official order, "Equal Measures" coming right after this one makes Cheetor's lesson learned here feel more like a lie. But placing the episode not only after that one but also at this point in the series makes it feel like the culmination of Cheetor's personal growth, with him having gone through and completed a full character arc. And by placing the two Cheetor episodes where they are, they are each separated by non-Cheetor episodes that make the arc feel both longer and with less redundancies. The two-part pilot episodes see him run off and get into trouble, then "Chain of Command" happens, then he gets into trouble again, then "Power Surge" happens, and then finally "The Web" happens, serving as the finale of this early-season mini-arc for Cheetor.

What's more, this episode is said to take place at least a month since the series began, with Rhinox having taken all that time to build the long-range commlink that Cheetor field-tests in this episode. I never liked that huge time gap between this episode and the pilot, so having it come this late fills in that gap with "Chain of Command", "Equal Measures", and "Power Surge". Plus, in those preceding episodes, there is no successful attempt made by the Maximals to contact each other from a great distance away. While Optimus does try to contact the base at the beginning of "Equal Measures", his comm does not reach the base due to interference from an energon storm. One could argue that his attempt to contact the base at all suggests that he ought to already have a long-range commlink, I would argue that that needn't necessarily be the case since the area he is seen in looks an awful lot like the mountainous area where the base is located, which suggests that he wasn't too far away to contact the base after all, and that he only failed to do so because of the energon interference. After all, the first episode established that their normal comms do have a maximum range of 100 meters.

This episode also has Optimus say that Rhinox doesn't have the means to make another long-range commlink after Cheetor trashed the first one, making it sound like they never get any new long-range comms afterward. And yet, the rest of the series just has characters contacting each other over long distances whenever the plot calls for it, so it's just a general inconsistency. And even in this episode, after Optimus says Rhinox can't make another new commlink, he then says that he's gonna try and call in Dinobot from the perimeter. Dinobot was way out in the field and yet Optimus was gonna contact him from the base, when he just said that they don't have any more long-range comms. In other words, this whole comms thing is so inconsistent as to be a completely moot point.

Anyway...

With Cheetor having run off into danger multiple times, now, disobeying Optimus each time, no less, that adds more meaning to this exchange between Rhinox and Rattrap, after Cheetor runs off again for the last time in the episode:

RHINOX: "Um, Um, Um...'
RATTRAP: "What -- ?"
RHINOX: "You know what he's gonna do."
RATTRAP: "Aw, he's just grinding his gears. Even he's not dumb enough to disobey the great Optimus again."
RHINOX: "Uh huh."
RATTRAP: "Okay, okay, okay. I'll stop him. If I can catch him! Sheeesh..."

Now we know good and well what Rhinox is thinking in this scene, with experience gained from watching every instance where Cheetor ran off into danger before now, when in the original order all we had to go off of were just the two times Cheetor ran off (once in the first episode, and once earlier in this episode), and the first time was barely acknowledged after it happened since Optimus focused instead on Rattrap objecting to one of his orders.

Meanwhile, in "Power Surge", Rattrap and Tarantulas had had a persona scuffle between the two. So when Rattrap sneaks into Tarantulas's lair to rescue Cheetor in "The Web", the ensuing fight between Rattrap and Tarantulas now feels like a rematch, with Tarantulas now taking Rattrap's unwelcomed presence in his lair more personal. And when the fight ends, Tarantulas's final line of "I hate that rat!" feels more impactful, now that the two have something of a history between them. While the two had also previously tussled during the big battle in Episode 2, it was very brief compared to the longer and more personal fight they had in "Power Surge".

Phew! All that for just one episode!


Moving on, next is "Fallen Comrades". Aside from "Double Jeopardy", Tigatron is in almost every episode to come afterward in this season, and the ones he doesn't appear in have Blackarachnia and/or Sentinel in them, so this episode pretty much has to come next at number 7, keeping its official placement.


After this comes... I really wanna say "Dark Voyage". I so badly want the next one to be "Dark Voyage" ...but it can't. Even though that episode so painfully feels like an early-season episode and doesn't feature Blackarachnia, Sentinel, Airazor, or Inferno... both Sentinel and Airazor are still mentioned by Optimus, so that episode must be shelved for later.


Which means the next episode is instead "Double Jeopardy", keeping it at Episode 8. Blackarachnia is introduced in this episode and, like Tigatron, she appears in almost every episode to come in the rest of the season, so this one must be next. Although, since Tigatron is not in this episode, it could have theoretically come before "Fallen Comrades". But in practice, that doesn't work because it begs the question of why Blackarachnia didn't help in the retrieval of Tigatron's pod if she was already up and around. Surely she'd want to look into reaching the pod first with the other Preds, out of sheer intrigue if not out of loyalty. Her absence from "Fallen Comrades" just raises too many questions if this one were to precede that one, whereas the same is not the case for Tigatron's absence in this episode since "Fallen Comrades" gave him an alibi for being away from the main Maximal team, while Blackarachnia is instead treated as a full member of the main Predacon team. At least, at this point in the season.


Then we come to "A Better Mousetrap" at number 9, keeping it where it is as well. While the previous episode first introduced Blackarachnia, she was barely in it. It is this episode that first shows what she's really like, and begins with her barking orders to Terrorsaur. This feels fitting coming right after the episode where he tried and failed (again) to overthrow Megatron, with Blackarachnia being put in charge of him feeling like a proper punishment for him. This episode also sees the introduction of the Axalon's new defense grid, Sentinel, which is likewise seen or mentioned in most later episodes, requiring this episode to come next. And when Sentinel goes haywire, Rattrap's attempts to shut it down lead the other Maximals to initially think he's been killed, which creates a very solemn moment where they eulogize him before he reveals himself to be alive. This will be important later.


Next on the list is "Dark Designs" at number 10. Early on in this episode, Megatron says that he underestimated Rhinox after getting beaten by him. He says this as if Rhinox had never bested him before now, and Rhinox gets some pretty up close and personal blows on Megatron in both "The Probe" and "Victory", thus requiring this episode to come before those. Though, one other thing that made this episode feel like it could come after "A Better Mousetrap" is the fact that the underground area near the Maximal base was blown up in that episode, and this episode begins with the Maximals searching for underground energon deposits in the area surrounding the base. While it's not the exact same spot where the ground was blown up, the explosion in that episode feels like it could have been what inspired the Maximals to search the area nearby for any energon.

Finally, Megatron also says in this episode that the Transmuter took a long time to create. One could take Rattrap's actions of pretending to betray the Maximals and become a Predacon in "Double Jeopardy" as inspiration for where Megatron got the idea to turn a Maximal into a Predacon in the first place (even if Megatron knew Rattrap was faking his betrayal, the idea could have still entered his mind from those events). Megatron's absence from "A Better Mousetrap" could be explained as he was working on the Transmuter during that time.

Next is "Double Dinobot" as Episode 11. I wanted this episode to come pretty closely after "A Better Mousetrap" because this is the only episode where Megatron directly targets the Maximals' new defense grid, Sentinel. It felt natural to me that he would want to do this right after Sentinel's debut episode. But after thinking more about it, there were two issues I had with this one coming right after that one. First, since none of the Predacons ever found out about Sentinel in "A Better Mousetrap" (and Megatron wasn't even in that episode), it felt kinda weird that Megatron would be suddenly so interested in taking out Sentinel in this episode, when we were given no indication that he ever knew about Sentinel beforehand.

And secondly, this episode has a scene where Cheetor wonders if Rattrap may have fallen to his death down into a river of lava, and Optimus is, shall we say, rather cavalier about the idea. Had this episode come right after "A Better Mousetrap", we'd get back-to-back episodes wherein someone grimly wonders if Rattrap might be dead, and the first time it's treated as a sad serious moment, while the second time it's played a lot more casually; almost insensitively, even. Placing "Dark Designs" between "A Better Mousetrap" and "Double Dinobot" helps to better space out those two just a little bit. I still wanted "Double Dinobot" to come closely after "A Better Mousetrap" since Sentinel still feels like a fairly recent development in this episode and Megatron's desire to disable it feels like something he'd want to do not long after Sentinel's creation (as opposed to waiting a whole five episodes before doing so in the official order), but it felt like there needed to be just one episode between the two in the meantime.

Also, "Dark Designs" has Megatron mention Rhinox's knowledge of the Maximal base's defense systems, which could be seen as an allusion to Sentinel. And the fact that both "Dark Designs" and "Double Dinobot" share a common thematic depiction of Megatron with an interest in experimentation feels like the two should go together (as they do in the official order, even), with Megatron taking what he learned from "Dark Designs" and implementing it into his experiment with the Dinobot clone in this episode. If he can't turn a Maximal into a Predacon and keep it under his control, he'll create his own Maximal infiltrator with loyalty built into it. And with how "Dark Designs" ended with the Maximals storming the Predacon base and defeating Megatron in his own home, such a personal humiliation would leave him wanting revenge by infiltrating the Maximals' own base. This would lead to him learning about Sentinel and thus wanting to take it out in this episode.


And now we finally get to "The Probe" at episode 12. I wanted episode 13 to serve as a sort of midseason finale, allowing one to split the full season into two 13-episode half-seasons. And this episode serves as Part 1 of that midseason finale. For the first time since the show began, the Maximals try to make contact with Cybertron in their aim to go home, something that's been looming in the background since the very beginning, and is finally brought back to forefront here. However, Dinobot is not excited about contacting the probe since he feels that he would be discriminated by the Maximal authorities, considered nothing more than a Predacon criminal. When Optimus assures him that he'll be treated properly as a Maximal, he says he doesn't want that either. Regardless, the Predacons thwart their efforts (but not without Rhinox getting the drop on Megatron and punching him right in the face, requiring "Dark Designs" to come before this episode) and the probe remains uncontacted.


And here comes "Victory" as Episode 13, the second part of the midseason finale. After failing their first attempt to return to Cybertron in "The Probe", the Maximals try again here. A connective tissue with that episode is Dinobot's continued feelings of being treated like a criminal should he return to Cybertron, as he resolves to stay behind on the planet. The final launch sequence of the Axalon and the battle aboard its bridge that leads to its descent back down make for an exciting climax to end the first half of the season on. And both "The Probe" and "Victory" were grouped together in the original broadcast order, so it works out even better keeping them together in this new order of mine.


Beginning the second half of the season as Episode 14 is "Gorilla Warfare". This episode is an exciting one to start the second half of the season, featuring almost all of the main cast thus far (only Tigatron is absent), and has a very exciting battle scene that makes for a good spectacle with which to open the season's second half. Optimus also gets to be the focal character for once, and the beginning of this episode sees him and Dinobot doing some ecological studies. This seems like something Optimus would want to do after he and the other Maximals have accepted the fact that they really are stuck here on this planet for the time being with no way to get back home (following the events of "Victory"), and might as well get some scientific research out of it. Such is their job, after all.

Plus, the Predacons specifically targeting Optimus's courage in this episode would make sense coming after "Victory" since it was Optimus who bravely saved the Axalon from crashing and guided it back down to a safe landing. Taking Optimus out of the picture in this episode would prevent him from repeating such a heroic save in any future incident should the Maximals ever find themselves in another life-or-death situation like that. It would also greatly decrease the Maximals' sense of morale, just like what happened when they nearly left Optimus behind back in "Victory". All this would create a greater sense of serialization between this episode and "Victory".


Next comes Episode 15, "The Spark", in the same placement as the official order. Airazor is introduced here and she appears or is mentioned in every episode to come after, so this ep had to come next. Also, Blackarachnia complains for the first time ever about following Megatron's orders, planting the seeds for what is to come next for her.


Then we come to "Possession" as number 16. This episode sees Blackarachnia get taught the ways of deception by Starscream, meaning it had to come before "The Trigger" since that two-parter is when she first takes her deceptive side to its fullest extent. It was always baffling that this episode came so long after that two-parter, especially since Inferno is completely absent from this episode, making it feel like it really ought to have come sooner. Megatron is even suspicious of Blackarachnia's ambitions at the start of "The Trigger", when she had never given him any reason to suspect her in any episode beforehand. This episode, however, sees Megatron first realize Blackarachnia's potential for treachery, so it makes even more sense for this to come before "The Trigger", since he is very wary about her loyalties in that episode.


Next comes "Dark Voyage" at number 17. I really, so very badly wish I could have placed this episode earlier, all the way back between "Fallen Comrades" and "Double Jeopardy", since it feels like an early episode of the series and lacks any appearances from Airazor, Blackarachnia, Sentinel, or Inferno. But while Airazor and Sentinel never appear in this episode, both of them are still mentioned by Optimus. So why didn't I just place this one episode earlier in place of "Possession"? Because it also felt wrong to put an episode where Airazor doesn't appear directly right after her debut episode, since she was barely in her debut episode. She makes a fair number of appearances in "Possession", allowing that episode to show her off more (even if she's not that episode's focal character).

This episode also creates some nice breathing room between the special guest-star episode of "Possession" and the special two-parter of "The Trigger", so as to not overwhelm the audience with two back-to-back special episodes. Thus, this becomes the last episode of the season to come before its final arc begins.


So, yeah, it should be no surprise after saying all that that next episode to come is "The Trigger, Part 1" as the 18th episode. This marks the beginning of the end for the season, setting up things for the final arc that leads directly to the season finale. Megatron is also suspicious of Blackarachnia and where her loyalties truly lie, making more sense for "Possession" to come before this episode.


Next is "The Trigger, Part 2" at number 19. It's the second part of the two-parter begun by the previous episode, so let's continue.


Then comes "Spider's Game" at number 20. This episode deals with the immediate aftermath of "The Trigger", with Tarantulas fearing the planet's imminent doom after the signal sent to the aliens by the destruction of the flying island. Blackarachnia still harbors ambitions of taking over the Predacons in this episode, but this is the last time she is shown to have those feelings. Inferno is also introduced here and appears in every episode afterward.


Next we get "Law of the Jungle" as Episode 21. The episode opens with Cheetor and Dinobot searching for any more alien sites. While this was originally used in the official order as a means of foreshadowing the alien energy anomaly seen at the beginning of "Before the Storm", it feels like it would make more sense for the Maximals to be searching for more alien sites right after having just gone through the ordeal they went through in "The Trigger", rather than waiting a whole six episodes later to start looking for them. And by the episode's end, there is no indication that they are still looking for more alien sites, allowing the remaining filler episodes to follow it before the final three alien-centric episodes. I would have put this one right after "The Trigger" if not for Inferno's appearance in this episode requiring "Spider's Game" to come between the two. And, as it so happens, "Spider's Game" ended with Optimus mentioning that Cheetor, Dinobot, and Rattrap were already out in the field doing reconnaissance work. Cheetor and Dinobot being out in the field looking for alien sites at the beginning of this episode happens to match up with that so nicely.

Also in this episode, Inferno is still very vindictive about Tigatron having destroyed his stasis pod back in "Spider's Game", calling him "Destroyer of my colony". Since Inferno would come to accept the Predacon base as his "colony" in other episodes, it made the most sense for him still considering his stasis pod to have been his colony in this episode to come right after the episode where that was first the case. And Inferno is very prominent in this episode, further making it feel like it should come right after his debut, as the remaining two filler episodes don't give as much focus to him as this episode does. It feels wrong to follow his debut episode with one where he's more of a background player (which actually did happen in the official order). Plus, he's also more wild in this episode like he was in his debut episode, with Terrorsaur and Waspinator even having some difficulty getting along with him, as he initially doesn't adhere to any of their orders or signals. This gives the impression that Inferno is still new to the Predacons and everyone is still getting used to him. Whereas, in his other episodes, there is no such conflict between him and the other Preds (before the season finale, that is), as if everyone had already adjusted to his addition to the Predacon team.

Then we come to Episode 22, "The Low Road". Keeping this one in its official placement, Inferno is a bit less prominent in this episode than the preceding two, but he is shown to be more of a team player with Terrorsaur and Waspinator, working together with them in better cooperation and coordination. This shows a bit of character growth for him in this order, going from a total wild card in his debut, to half wild card/half team player in the previous ep, and more of a team player here. Megatron also suffers a most humiliating defeat in this episode, paving the way for what he does in the next one.


Episode 23 becomes "Call of the Wild". Inferno is fully integrated into the Predacons by this one and a complete background player. I never liked how this one came right after his debut in the official order since he's such a non-entity in this episode, which felt very counterproductive to the idea of promoting him as a new character. With his bigger roles now preceding this one, he's been given his proper time in the limelight. And, with the humiliating defeat Megatron suffered in the previous episode, it feels more natural that he'd want a kind of revenge where he would render the Maximals not only helpless but just as humbled as he was. And this episode sees that kind of helplessness and disgrace carried out, but also ends with on a very triumphant victory for the Maximals, concluding the season's last filler episode on an uplifting high note before things get real in the next three episodes.


And so, we come to the final three episodes, which really need no explanation: "Before the Storm", "Other Voices, Part 1", and "Other Voices, Part 2". With these episodes now preceded by two fillers, it makes the alien energy anomaly found at the beginning of "Before the Storm" come off as a surprise that the audience doesn't see coming as much, making it all the more exciting when it builds up to the season's grand finale.



So in the end, the episodes are now arranged like so:

Episode list:

01. (01) "Beast Wars (Part 1)"
02. (02) "Beast Wars (Part 2)"
03. (05) "Chain of Command"
04. (04) "Equal Measures"
05. (06) "Power Surge"
06. (03) "The Web"
07. (07) "Fallen Comrades"
08. (08) "Double Jeopardy"
09. (09) "A Better Mousetrap"
10. (13) "Dark Designs"
11. (14) "Double Dinobot"
12. (11) "The Probe"
13. (12) "Victory"
14. (10) "Gorilla Warfare"
15. (15) "The Spark"
16. (21) "Possession"
17. (20) "Dark Voyage"
18. (16) "The Trigger, Part 1"
19. (17) "The Trigger, Part 2"
20. (18) "Spider's Game"
21. (23) "Law of the Jungle"
22. (22) "The Low Road"
23. (19) "Call of the Wild"
24. (24) "Before the Storm"
25. (25) "Other Voices, Part 1"
26. (26) "Other Voices, Part 2"


In other words:

• Swap the places of "The Web" and "Chain of Command", then move "Power Surge" up to come right before "The Web"
• Keeping "Dark Designs" and "Double Dinobot" together, swap the two of them together with the placement of "Gorilla Warfare"
• Move "Possession" up right before "Dark Voyage", and then move both of them up together to come between "The Spark" and "The Trigger, Part 1"
• Swap the places of "Call of the Wild" and "Law of the Jungle"

And in this new order come the following serializations:

• Episodes 1-6: The Beast Wars begin, with stasis pods released into orbit, Cheetor getting into trouble, Rattrap complaining defiantly, Dinobot switching sides, and the Maximals noticing the Standing Stones. The Maximals investigate the stones, where a battle sees Megatron still sore about Dinobot's betrayal, Rattrap still complaining, and the arrival of an alien probe is initially mistaken for a stasis pod. Rattrap gets taste of leadership and comes to understand Optimus better, while a big mystery is left lingering for now. Cheetor then gets himself into trouble again, but gets himself out of trouble and saves the day on his own. Optimus commends him, but also threatens severe punishment should Cheetor ever disobey him again, which Cheetor just shrugs off. Meanwhile, Terrorsaur tries to team up with Dinobot against both Megatron and Optimus, but his efforts are ruined. He then gets empowered by a mountain of energon and overthrows Megatron for real, but soon loses his power. During this ordeal, Rattrap and Tarantulas have a fight. Cheetor then gets into even bigger trouble and is punished by Optimus as promised. He breaks rank again, goes through an even more traumatic ordeal, and must be rescued from Tarantulas by Rattrap. Tarantulas loses his rematch with Rattrap, while Cheetor has finally learned his lesson and matures into a true team player.
• Episodes 7-11: The first two stasis pods come down, adding Tigatron to the Maximals and Blackarachnia to the Predacons. Rattrap infiltrates the Predacons under the guise of joining them, and helps Terrorsaur to take over again. This ends in failure for Terrorsaur, who is punished and put under Blackarachnia's command, while Megatron begins a new project that involves turning a Maximal into a Predacon for real. The Maximals create a new defense grid named Sentinel, who nearly kills Rattrap when it goes haywire. After a ruined Predacon scheme blows up part of the ground near the Maximal base, the Maximals search the groundsfor any energon deposits, but are ambushed by the Predacons. Rhinox outwits the Preds and Megatron captures him to use his newly-completed project, the Transmuter, on him, hoping to gain information on the Maximals' defense systems. But Evil Rhinox is too ambitious for his own good, forcing Megatron to turn him back into a Maximal. The Maximals storm the Predacon base to rescue Rhinox and humble Megatron in his own home. He then seeks to breach the Maximals' base out of vengeance and, after fully learning about Sentinel, improves his experimentation methods with a clone of Dinobot. The clone nearly succeeds in killing Rattrap, but he survives (again), and the real Dinobot defeats the clone and thwarts Megatron's efforts for good.
• Episodes 12-16: Cybertron sends out probes to search for the missing Axalon and her crew. One probe is detected by the Maximals and they attempt to contact it, hoping to go back to Cybertron. All except for Dinobot, who feels he'd be treated like a criminal back on Cybertron. However, the Predacons spy on their efforts and successfully stop the Maximals from signaling the probe. The Maximals then spy on the Predacons, who fake their own deaths so that the Maximals can loot the Predacon base for equipment to repair the Axalon, which the Predacons aim to hijack so that they can return to Cybertron. Dinobot still does not wish to go home and opts to stay behind, but he discovers the Predacons' ruse and a battle leaves the Axalon grounded for good. Now that they're not going anywhere, Optimus decides to do some more scientific work, only to be attacked by Scorponok and infected with a viral mine. The resultant berserker Optimus leads a full attack on the Predacon base where an antidote is found and obtained, saving Optimus's life at the last second. A third stasis pod then adds Airazor to the Maximal ranks. At the same time, Blackarachnia has grown tired of taking orders from Megatron; with the arrival of the ghost of Starscream, he teaches her the ways of deception, which leaves Megatron wary of Blackarachnia's potential for treachery.
• Episodes 18-21: Following a harrowing ordeal where most of the Maximals wander around the jungle blind, Tigatron stumbles upon a mysterious flying island guarded by powerful weapons of alien design. With her newfound sense of ambition, Blackarachnia seeks to take this power for herself and rule the Predacons. The resulting battle destroys the island, which sends an ominous signal into deep space. Fearing the planet's doom, Tarantulas attempts to steal the stasis pod of the newly-awakened Inferno so that he can build an escape ship, but Tigatron blows up the pod. Inferno joins the Predacons, but is outraged over Tigatron having destroyed his "colony", and continues to bear this grudge during a battle that occurs while the Maximals are out searching for more alien sites in the wake of the flying island's destruction.
• Episodes 22-26: Inferno gradually grows into his role as a Predacon, learning to work better with Terrorsaur and Waspinator until finally becoming a full member of the team. During this time, Megatron suffers a grueling defeat in a humiliating incident with wild bean vines, and makes the Maximals suffer the loss of their rectifier coil, forcing them to stay in Beast Mode inside their base day after day. They become more and more feral until Tigatron shows them how to embrace their animal sides and delete the programming block within them. They are triumphant over Megatron. Everyone is then caught off guard by the sudden appearance of an alien energy anomaly and a new Golden Disk, which foreshadows the aliens' arrival and their decision to destroy the planet with a weapon built into one of the two moons in the sky. The Maximals and Predacons are able to destroy the weapon, but at the cost of Optimus's life, ending the season on a major cliffhanger.

Well, on a somewhat sad note, if anyone wants to get some of the Ghostbusters, clear Optimus, or clear Arms Microns I have used for a lot of my personal continuity, due to various ongoing events, I have them up on ebay, links are in the sales thread. I will be including the spare gun and green axe plus those little Ghostbusters Spikes I made with the GB lot.



And yes, I am including the little scorpion friend I made in the Arms Micron lot with Clear Prime:



I put Gigatron in with the Ghostbusters simply to replicate this scene:



Also trying to help a friend a bit, there's an insanely elaborate Cardcaptor Sakura if you want to catch cards instead of ghosts. But I am NOT getting rid of Pretender Optimus Prime wearing a hat...Tracy the Gorilla Prime is MINE, you can find that one yourself...

Edit: thank you, everyone, who looked and took interest! It really is appreciated!

Another long one that had to be split into two posts.


Recently, I've been trying to do what most might consider to be an impossibility. That is, to find actual workable placements (in relation to the US issues) for the events of the first four Marvel UK G1 comic stories: "Man of Iron", "The Enemy Within!", "Raiders of the Last Ark", and the main flashback portion of "Decepticon Dam-Busters!"

These four were written with the intent of slotting their events into the timeframe of the first four issues of the US comics, but were each written in such a way that made it difficult for them to neatly fit in. The first four US issues have such a tightly-knit, serialized continuity between them, while these four UK stories were incredibly vague about how they fit into the larger narrative of "The Transformers", "Power Play!", "Prisoner of War!" and "The Last Stand". And even with those four US stories being split in half to make two issues each for their UK release, that still didn't provide any clean breaks for the four UK stories to fit neatly between those US-story issues.

The three "Robot War" recaps tried to find places for these four UK stories, but only did so in ways that make no sense. Namely, those recaps recounted events of the US stories that did not actually reflect how they went down in those stories. Like, "Man of Iron" and "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" were placed during the events of "Prisoner of War!", at a point where there isn't actually any time for them to take place.

"Prisoner of War!" begins with the Decepticons returning to their base with the captured Sparkplug Witwicky as their hostage. They order him to come up with a formula to convert ordinary gasoline into Transformer-compatible fuel, but he refuses. Back at Sparkplug's home, the defeated Autobots lick their wounds from the battle they just had with the Decepticons, and decide to return to the Ark, bringing Sparkplug's son Buster along with them. Back with the Decepticons, Sparkplug is convinced to help them with the formula, and thus begins a montage of the Decepticons stealing materials and equipment from different places to help Sparkplug with the fuel conversion. It is during this montage that "Robot War" wants us to believe the events of "Man of Iron" and "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" took place. There are at least three problems with that:

1. Starscream is shown to be among the Decepticons involved in the thefts carried out during the montage, when all three Seekers (plus Laserbeak and Buzzsaw) were over in England taking part in the events of "Man of Iron". Starscream couldn't have been in both England and Oregon at the same time.
2. The present-day events of "Man of Iron" span a total of three days (there's a couple of time-skips at the end of the story that take place in the future from when the story is set, so we won't count those), while the flashback story of "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" is on yet another day, making four days total. The implication of the montage in "Prisoner of War!" is that it spans only a single night, with the first caption of the first panel that ends the montage beginning with "Dawn", denoting that it's supposed to be the very next day from when Sparkplug was kidnapped, not four days later.
3. The flashback portion of "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" begins with Ratchet's narration of "We'd got wind of another Decepticon plan to transform Earth power into a fuel source they could use." He says that the events of this story were another plan, as if the Decepticons had already carried out some other energy-related scheme beforehand. The thing is, Sparkplug's kidnapping was their first and only energy-related plan during the first four US issues, and if "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" was set during the aforementioned montage, that means it took place while the Decepticons' first plan was still in the early stages of being carried out, and wasn't anywhere close to completion. Plus, if the story took place during "Prisoner of War!", Sparkplug would still be their hostage, yet there is zero sign of him at all during "Decepticon Dam-Busters!".

Similar problems arise for where "Robot War" places the events of "The Enemy Within!" and "Raiders of the Last Ark". These two stories are placed at the very end of "Prisoner of War!", right after the Autobots and Spider-Man rescue Sparkplug from the Decepticon base, but right before Sparkplug is brought back to the Ark, reunites with Buster, and reveals the sad truth to everyone that he succeeded in giving the 'Cons the fuel conversion formula. Like before, this placement doesn't make any sense at all because there is no time for anything (let alone "The Enemy Within!" and "Raiders of the Last Ark") to take place here: Right after Sparkplug is rescued, he is immediately taken back to the Ark. The scene right before that is when he, Spider-Man, and the Autobots have all made their escape from the Decepticon fortress, with Gears fatally injured from the rescue; Gears isn't restored to working order until after Sparkplug returns to the Ark, yet he is up and about during "The Enemy Within!" There is no time for two whole other adventures to have occurred between these two scenes.

So then, if we can't trust where "Robot War" placed these four UK stories, where can they go? Well, after a LOT of headache-inducing work, I think I have found some workable places for them.

---

I'll skip "Man of Iron" for now, since it is the hardest one to fit, so we'll instead look at "The Enemy Within!" first.

The story begins in the Decepticon fortress with Megatron and Starscream arguing about their next move against the Autobots. Megatron mentions the encounter with Spider-Man in "Prisoner of War!" as having happened both previously and recently. The Autobots are also shown making more repairs to the Ark, which is what they're seen doing at the beginning of "The Last Stand", right when they hear Sparkplug's confession. Speaking of which, Sparkplug and Buster aren't at the Ark or even in this story at all. In "The Last Stand", they leave the Ark when Sparkplug has his heart attack and Ratchet takes him and Buster to the hospital. The Decepticons also have no concerns about needing to replenish their fuel reserves, suggesting that Sparkplug has already completed his fuel conversion formula for them.

All this would suggest "The Enemy Within!" to instead take place during "The Last Stand", at some point after the Witwickys leave the Ark, but before the final battle. Why before then? Because "Raiders of the Last Ark" is the direct follow-up to "The Enemy Within!", and it ends with the Decepticons retreating from their raid on the Ark and vowing to return, which a narration caption explains is meant to foreshadow their final assault on the Ark at the end of "The Last Stand", requiring both "Enemy" and "Raiders" to come before that battle. A reference to "Raiders" is also made by Prowl in the later UK story "The Wrath of Grimlock!", further placing "Raiders" before the end of "The Last Stand".

Looking through "The Last Stand", there is a scene at the Decepticon base that ends with Megatron menacingly looming over Starscream. At first, this looks like a good stopping point to pause "The Last Stand" and switch to reading "The Enemy Within!", as the latter begins with Megatron yelling at Starscream. However, the context of this scene in "The Last Stand" makes that transition completely unworkable. In this scene, Megatron is declaring that now is the time to launch their final attack on the Ark and destroy the Autobots once and for all, to which Starscream nervously agrees. While "The Enemy Within!" instead begins with Starscream calling for a direct strike on the Ark while Megatron wants the Decepticons to instead cautiously watch and wait, saying that now is not the time for battle. So that scene in "The Last Stand" doesn't work.

Looking through the issue again, there is another point earlier in the story that I feel could work (albeit, somewhat imperfectly). On the eighth page of the story (not counting the cover or inside-cover), there is a scene where a fully refueled Megatron steps outside from the Decepticon fortress and allows the US military to unleash all their firepower on him. He is unharmed and the frightened military is sent packing. Megatron then turns around and walks back to the base. Right here is where I've chosen the stopping point for the story. It's the very next scene that comes after Sparkplug has been admitted to the hospital, and everything else that comes after this scene is too serialized with the final battle at the end of the issue.

Admittedly, it's not a perfect fit, since the scene literally jumps from Megatron walking outside to suddenly being inside yelling at Starscream mid-conversation. But because "The Enemy Within!" was never written to be a perfect fit with the US stories, this is as good as it's gonna fit. Besides, the original scene similarly jumped from Megatron being outside to inside anyway. And "The Enemy Within!" shows there to be no military outside Decepticon fortress surrounding it anymore, so it has to come after this scene from "The Last Stand" regardless, since the military is sent into retreat in this scene.

So basically, after Sparkplug is hospitalized, Megatron tests out his refueled condition on the military, sends said military packing, and then goes back inside his base to find Starscream badmouthing Megatron's orders, leading right into "The Enemy Within!" and then "Raiders of the Last Ark". And after those two stories, "The Last Stand" resumes with Megatron overlooking the damaged Decepticons who are recovering from their most recent skirmish with the Autobots, which would now be in the events of "Raiders of the Last Ark". For now, at least.

---

Next comes the flashback part of "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" While "Robot War" placed this before "Enemy" and "Raiders" right after "Man of Iron", certain lines of dialogue from Megatron during the fight between him and Optimus atop Sherman Dam give off the impression that this fight has been a long time coming. Lines like "Greetings, Autobots! I'm so glad you could make it to witness my final victory!" and "I'm going to seal this Decepticon victory with your death, Prime!" give this fight a real sense of dramatic finality to it, as if this is latest-set event in Megatron's time on Earth (but still before the final battle of "The Last Stand").

And like I said above, the events of this flashback story are said to be "another Decepticon plan to transform Earth power into a fuel source they could use." Since their kidnapping of Sparkplug and forcing him to make the fuel conversion formula was their first energy-related plan, "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" must come after Sparkplug's rescue. But, from the time when Sparkplug is rescued at the end of "Prisoner of War!" to when he is hospitalized in "The Last Stand", there is no point where the "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" flashback could take place. Everything is too serialized in those two issues.

...Unless we use the same stopgap I used in order to slot "The Enemy Within!" and "Raiders of the Last Ark" into the middle of "The Last Stand". Looking at the end of "Raiders" and the point of recommencement in "The Last Stand", the flashback events of "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" can absolutely go there, right after "Raiders" and right before the rest of "The Last Stand". So now the scene of Megatron looking over the damaged Decepticons would instead be in reference to the damage they took during "Decepticon Dam-Busters!"

And now... "Man of Iron", the most difficult one to fit. Unlike the other three, this one occupies its own little bubble, with all scenes set in Stansham, England and no sign or even mention of the Ark, and with a very limited cast of Autobots (Optimus, Jazz, Mirage, Trailbreaker, and Bluestreak) and Decepticons (the three Seekers, Laserbeak, and Buzzsaw). What's more, this story got printed in the original US run, between "Used Autobots" and "Child's Play", with a note saying that it is set at some point when Optimus is still the Autobot leader (at this point in the US run, Optimus had already committed suicide over a video game). While one could easily just ignore this story and move on without thinking about when it takes place, the Transformers '84 one-shot from 2019 went and doubled-down on this story's canonicity in the the US comics continuity, insisting that it has to take place somewhere.

In this story, the Transformers are still relatively new to Earth and don't seem to have reached the level of common knowledge on a global scale just yet. Optimus also says that the Autobots are "few" in number, implying that this story is set before their ranks are joined by the likes of Jetfire and the 1985 Autobot Cars, both of whom formally join the team in "Rock and Roll-Out!", so it would be most ideal to place it before that story.

Placing it during the four-issue limited series like the other three isn't as doable as it was for those three. While it could, theoretically, slot in between the end of "Raiders of the Last Ark" and the beginning of the flashback of "Decepticon Dam-Busters!", there are three things to consider:

• The Autobots are so desperately low on fuel during the first four US issues that it feels really hard to believe that they could just take a shuttle to go galivanting off over to jolly old England half a world away. That's a lot of fuel for them to use up for the trip there and back to Oregon.
• Trailbreaker gets blown up but good in "Man of Iron", yet is seen among the Autobots defending Sherman Dam from the Decepticons in "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" The four-issue limited series makes it clear that the Autobots are very limited on resources, so either we have to assume that Ratchet was able to repair Trailbreaker between issues by some miracle, or we have to simply write off Trailbreaker's appearance in "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" as an error and pretend he isn't actually there. The latter even has some weight to it when one considers he only appears during the same shot that shows Inferno to be there as well, when he isn't supposed to be there either.
• From a US continuity perspective, when trying to place "Man of Iron" by itself during the same stopgap in "The Last Stand" that I used for the other three UK stories, it doesn't work the same way it did for them. The stopping point I chose was intended to lead directly into "The Enemy Within!". Take out that story and the other two and you have one scene where Megatron starts walking back to the Decepticon base, and then the next scene suddenly cuts to Stansham, England for no rhyme or reason.

Now, you might be wondering why the last point would matter if I'm looking at all of this from the perspective of the UK continuity. Well, I'm actually looking at it from the perspectives of both the UK continuity and the US continuity, which are not the same continuity. While they share many of the same stories, the UK continuity has all of its original stories that the US continuity does not have (save for this lone exception, "Man of Iron"), while the US continuity has the G.I. Joe crossover that sees Bumblebee get rebuilt into Goldbug (which the UK continuity replaced with its own original stories) and "The Night the Transformers Saved Christmas", which came out between "Rock and Roll-Out!" and "I, Robot-Master!" Dialogue was even rewritten for certain US issues when they were printed in the UK, changing the context of scenes to better match up with the events of certain related UK-original issues.

And then there's the more recent continuity of Regeneration One and Transformers '84: Secrets & Lies, which deliberately omitted the UK stories, only borrowing certain elements from them without the actual events they came from. So we're looking at at least two US-only continuities that aren't the same as the UK continuity.

With that said, I wanted to find a place for "Man of Iron" to go that would fit for both the UK and US continuities. Since all three Seekers were in "Man of Iron", I had to look for some place the story could go that was set before the events of "Command Performances!", since that was the issue when Omega Supreme took all three Seekers out of commission for a while in both the US and UK continuities. With that as the cut off point, I decided to reread every single US and UK issue from the beginning of the comics up to "Command Performances!". But it wasn't just a simple matter of looking for a point where the overarching story could take a break to let "Man of Iron" slip in between issues. Rather, there was one more factor that made things even more difficult. "Man of Iron" establishes its setting as taking place at the end of Summer just as Autumn is beginning, which places the story during the month of September. This, alone, ruined so many possible placements for the story because of when several other issues were set.

US issue #7, "Warrior School!", is set during Spring, while US issue #18, "The Bridge to Nowhere!" is also set during Spring (of the following year). Going by the US continuity, there's no way "Man of Iron" can come before "Warrior School!", but could theoretically fit somewhere halfway between "Warrior School!" and "The Bridge to Nowhere!" The middlemost US issues between those two are #12 "Prime Time!" and #13 "Shooting Star!" The former is when Optimus is finally restored to Autobot command after having been a captive of Shockwave for eight issues, while the latter is a side story set away from the main storyline, with Megatron in the hands of a human crook. In theory, one could actually place "Man of Iron" concurrent to the time of "Shooting Star!" since "Man of Iron" spans only three days while "Shooting Star!" spans several weeks.

However, while this placement works for the US continuity, it does not work for the UK continuity because, in said UK continuity, "Prime Time!" is followed immediately by "Christmas Breaker!", "Crisis of Command!", "The Icarus Theory", "Dinobot Hunt!", and then "Shooting Star!". "Christmas Breaker!" takes place on December 24-25, and "The Icarus Theory" takes place on January 19-25, placing this arc of the comics in Winter, while "Man of Iron" is set at the beginning of Autumn. And there can't be a long gap between "Prime Time!" and "Christmas Breaker!" because the latter is set immediately after the former; a newspaper dated to December 24 in the latter has an article about the events of the former, indicating those events to have happened very recently.

And it can't go in the Autumn after "The Bridge to Nowhere!" either because the very next issue after it is "Command Performances!"

So with all these places that "Man of Iron" can't go, what was I left to do? Well, since finding a single place for it that fits both the US and UK continuities has proven impossible (unless someone else here has any other ideas I've overlooked), I begrudgingly decided that it seems the only way to fit this story in is to give it TWO different placements, one for the UK continuity and one for the US continuity (which I did not want to do, but I don't see any other way to make it fit).

• For the US comics, it seems placing it concurrent to "Shooting Star!" is the only viable option, so one can read it either between "Prime Time!" and "Shooting Star!", or between "Shooting Star!" and "Rock and Roll-Out!"
• For the UK comics, well, if one can get past the idea of the Autobots having enough fuel to take a shuttle over to England and back, and get past the issue of Trailbreaker blowing up and then being fine later (or simply saying his appearance is an error), "Man of Iron" can go with the other UK stories in the stopgap of "The Last Stand", between "Raiders of the Last Ark" and "Decepticon Dam-Busters!".

---

With all that said, however, there is one more thing to figure out: Ratchet. In "The Last Stand", he drives Sparkplug and Buster to the hospital, and then stays there for the rest of the issue and even into the next one. Yet, he is present with other Autobots in both "The Enemy Within!" and "Decepticon Dam-Busters!", the two stories that bookend the entire stopgap. My explanation for this is a simple one: He dropped off Sparkplug and Buster at the hospital, went back to the Ark, and then after the events of "The Enemy Within!", "Raiders of the Last Ark", "Man of Iron", and "Decepticon Dam-Busters!", he returned back to the hospital to check up on Buster and Sparkplug. But since he had to remain in vehicle mode, all he could do was sit outside the building and wait patiently to hear any word of Sparkplug's condition from Buster.

---

So in the end, this is my personal reading order for the first four Marvel UK stories in relation to the other issues:

Marvel US continuity
"The Transformers"
"Power Play!"
"Prisoner of War!"
"The Last Stand"
"The New Order"
"The Worse of Two Evils!"
"Warrior School!"
"Repeat Performance!"
"DIS-Integrated Circuits!"
"The Next Best Thing to Being There!"
"Brainstorm!"
"Prime Time!"
"Shooting Star!" / "Man of Iron"
"Rock and Roll-Out!"

Marvel UK continuity
"The Transformers"
"Power Play!"
"Prisoner of War!"
"The Last Stand" Pages 1-8
"The Enemy Within!"
"Raiders of the Last Ark"
"Man of Iron"
"Decepticon Dam-Busters!" flashback story
"The Last Stand" Pages 9-22
"The New Order"
"The Worse of Two Evils!"
"Warrior School!"
"Repeat Performance!"
"Decepticon Dam-Busters!" present-day wraparound story
"The Wrath of Guardian!"
"The Wrath of Grimlock!"
"DIS-Integrated Circuits!"
"The Next Best Thing to Being There!"
"Brainstorm!"
"Prime Time!"
"Christmas Breaker!"
"Crisis of Command!"
"The Icarus Theory"
"Dinobot Hunt!"
"Shooting Star!"
"Rock and Roll-Out!"

That was pretty fun! Thanks for posting that.

Classics Bumblebee and Cliffjumper are now the Armada versions of the characters.

Haywire said:

Classics Bumblebee and Cliffjumper are now the Armada versions of the characters.

Click to expand...

If you swivel open the arm door, there's actually a mini-con compatible peg there!

I do that with my Classics Cliffjumper and a 2010 "Brake-Neck" to represent the Mini-Spy my original Cliffjumper came with.

Legacy is a battle in Nexus 25.0814 Beta.

That's what SHE sai-, No, no, wait, wrong meme...

Out of curiosity, while not looking at super-detailed stuff, does anyone else who groups toys by whatever category, when a toy is broke or sold off, mentally 'rewrite' a bit to explain why it's not on the shelf anymore? I realize I do this just recently when I was thinking about how RID Prime and Magnus would 'come back' since I haven't had either in many years, and I started realizing that I did this all the time without actually thinking about it.

I do have a thing in my world to explain characters "upgrading" from their G1 toys to modern remakes. But, usually, when I switch from one modern remake to another, I just retcon their upgrade directly to the new one...

Beasties Beast Wars' Fuzor Quickstrike and Beast Machines' technorganic toy-only Quickstrike were indeed the same character, as the latter's bio text kinda-sorta implied.

How did he get from one series to the other, considering the state he was left in back on prehistoric Earth, you may ask?

There is a workaround for that, as it turns out....

(Reworked list, boosted the Cons ranks and added Star Raiders. Removed Gigatron and Pred Trio.)

Reworking 2001RID for my canon. Keeping T-AI, Koji, the Autobot base and planetary space bridge network. Along with Sky-Byte and Tow-Line. I'm replacing the rest of the cast with:

Autobots

Heatwave as leader

Chase, Medix, and Strongarm as the Autobot trio. High Alert (Armada Red Alert) working alongside T-AI at HQ coordinating and prioritizing missions.

Along with Bulkhead as the odd man out, not being a rescue vehicle. Yet needed to maintain repairs on the space bridge network.

Tow-Line and Speedtrap (Renamed Animated Prowl) as comic relief. (Speedtrap tries to give other Autobots tickets for speeding while in the space bridge network. Tow-Line stays as he was in og series.)

Protectobots: Hot Spot, Streetwise, Blade, Groove, and First Aid with Rook and Streetstar as extra members.

Inferno, Red Alert, Artfire, Lift-Ticket, Clampdown, Prowl, Ratchet, and Minerva as support from Autobot main HQ.

Star Raiders

Thundertron as leader

Cannonball, Ferak, Filch, Lockdown and Sky-Byte.

Decepticons (Autocons)

Nemesis Prime as leader

Magnificus, Knock Out, Crasher, Barricade, Runabout, Runamuck, Axelgrease, Kaskade, Crankcase and Beatdown (renamed TFL: United Prime Universe Breakdown)

Insecticons: Ransack, Vemon, Barrage and Chopshop.

Stunticons: Motor Master, Deadend, Breakdown, Dragstrip and Wildrider. With Brake-Neck and Offroad as extra members.

Autobot traitors Flamewar and Slicer, with their Robo-Smasher victims: Delta Magnus, Slugbug, Speedfreak and Broadcast w/ Playback. (SG Ultra Magnus, Goldbug, Blurr and Blaster)